experimental literature

“Maker Taker Quaker” published in Var(2x)

Var(2x) is an online literary magazine for “extreme experimentalism” that always lives up to its stated intent. Editors Daniel Harris and Irene Koronas seek to publish the “elite of the elite” in experimental writing; this journal doesn’t just define the cutting edge, the texts usually go way over that edge for a good close look at the abyss of text and visual poetry and other language related hybrids.

I’m very pleased to make a second appearance in the journal with a text poem (?) called “Maker Taker Quaker.” This piece came out of my explorations of speculative languages that could potentially be developed by AI units. The text proceeds by triads of imaginary and real words with similar rhyming constructions and sometimes alliterative qualities. Is it a love song, a transaction, a spell, a negotiation? Only the AIs of the future will know.

The video still illustrating the piece is also my work.

You can read the text here.

“Magic Pattern” and ten junk asemic vispo published in Otoliths

Otoliths #64, the Southern Summer Issue, was just released, containing the usual encyclopedic overview of the international experimental lit scene, with text, visuals, video and hybrids galore. I’m pleased to be represented once again with one text piece, “Magic Pattern” and ten more asemic vispo made from junk I found on the street over a couple decades. The text is an extension of my AI language experiments using a vocabulary referring to American magical thinking of the current moment. You can read the text here and witness the visuals here.

Five poems and ten vispo published in Otoliths 63

A new issue of Otoliths is always an event. The quarterly online literary and arts journal presents an encyclopedic cross section of current avant garde literary and visual experiments from a host of international contributors. It’s a one stop shop for a view of the contemporary experimental scene. Otoliths #63, the “Southern Spring issue” was released yesterday, and it is no exception. Essential reading and viewing.

I’m pleased to be represented in this issue with a selection of visual and text poems from my most recent work. There are ten pieces of vispo composed from a treasure trove of junk I found on the street over decades of scrounging. They can be viewed here. This series can be considered “junk asemic” visual poems, but I really need to come up with a better title for it. The text pieces are part of a large stash of my newest poetry, much more fragmentary in style. These include “If you’re there,” “What awesome was,” “told best,” “Nowhere and Whittaker,” and “recall this dimmer.” You read them here.

Floral Float Flume excerpt published in Var(2x)

Var (2x) is an online literary journal by the makers of X-Peri reserved for the most extreme literary experiments. I’m pleased to have (finally) made the cut with an excerpt from Floral Float Flume: Flue Flit Flip, a novel about AI units engaged in a series of marketplace transactions. This selection comprises about 18 pages, or the first four episodes out of ten. The whole story runs 70 manuscript pages.

The vocabulary of the piece is severely limited to words beginning with “fl-“. What you see is not a random selection of words but a precise narrative with specific meaning and syntax. Four letter words are operations; five letter words are objects. To start with, “Floral Float Flume” is the name of one of the transactional AI units, and “flue flit flip” translates as “enter offer profit,” a kind of “vini vidi vici” for transactional AIs.

If you dare, you can read the selection here.

Trash vispo published in Utsanga

Utsanga #25 was just released today. This Italy-based experimental literary journal is overloaded with great work from across the international avant garde. Vispo, asemic works, video, sound poems, textual pieces…it’s all represented, and everything inspires. Just click the link to start browsing the contents.

I’m very pleased to be included with ten new works of visual poetry. I call this series “Trash Vispo” because it’s composed from random junk my friend David Craig picked up from the street and mailed to me from various places where he was living (Herndon, VA and Portland, OR) over the course of many years. Each manilla envelope was a time capsule gold mine of provocative flotsam that demanded to be arranged and preserved in time. You can check out my work here.

Short story “Pussy Bomb/Earthquakes Bring Confusion” published in X-Peri

An online literary journal for extreme experimentalism, X-Peri publishes new work every Monday. Today, my science fiction story “Pussy Bomb/Earthquakes Bring Confusion” appeared on the site, with an accompanying still image from my video “Succubus Highway.” You can check it out here.

This text is part of a series of pieces featuring Doom Pussy, a kind of Kali-esque figure engaged in a war against war…as well as gender, environmental destruction, and other by products of human activity. An editor at another journal once described a Doom Pussy story as “a cross between William S. Burroughs and Andrea Dworkin.” This should come with an NSFW warning for extremely graphic language and situations. So I’m especially grateful to X-Peri for publishing it.

“Sparkle Plenty” and 10 vispo published in Otoliths #57

otoliths spring 2020

Another massive installment of Otoliths, something of a journal of record for the international avant garde lit scene, was just released yesterday. This is Issue 57, for Southern Autumn 2020 (as it’s edited in Australia). Tons of new visual poetry, text work, poetry, poetics, etc (all the unclassifiable stuff) for passing the quarantined time and sharing with your socially isolated friends.

vispo otoliths spring 2020

I’m very pleased to be part of this issue “Sparkle Plenty,” a long poem based on a restricted vocabulary drawn from American magical thinking in a form that could be some programming sent from one Artificial Intelligence to another. Only 2 of 12 stanzas are represented below. Also, ten pieces of visual poetry with asemic calligraphy, part of a much larger set of work that may comprise the log book of a human colony on an extraterrestrial world. You can check it out here.

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“Gravy Pills,” one other text, and five asemic vispo published in Otoliths 55

otoliths 55 cover

Just released, Otoliths #55, the Southern Autumn 2019 issue, is jam packed as usual with fine text, vispo and hybrid experiments from across the international literary avant garde. I’m pleased to be represented with two new texts, “Gravy Pills” and “Phantom Gold,” plus five new visual poems with asemic writing. You can view them here.

asemic vispo-otoliths 55

The texts continue experiments with AI language poems, this time using vocabulary drawn from the magical thinking of the average American. The vispo are a small selection from a kind of diary of a extraplanetary colony world.

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“Flip Operations II” and 5 asemic calligraphy works published in Otoliths

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The latest issue of Otoliths was released today, this one being Issue 53, the southern autumn, 2019. As usual, it’s an encyclopedic compendium of “plays, poems, paintings, reviews, stories, and collaborations galore” from across the international avant garde spectrum, including work from Lynn Strongin, Jeff Bagato, Pete Spence, Kyle Hemmings, Seth Howard, Andrew Topel,  Jim Leftwich, Steve Potter, Sanjeev Sethi, David Baptiste Chirot, Alison Ross, Mike Callaghan, John M. Bennett, Stephen Bett, Jim Meirose, Joel Chace, John Bradley, Dah, Ian Ganassi, Laura Bell, Emilio Morandi, Steve Dalachinsky, Jacob Kobina Ayiah Mensah, R. Keith, Cecelia Chapman, Keith Polette, Daniel de Culla, M. Liberto Gorgoni, Olivier Schopfer, Mary Cresswell, Jack Galmitz, Anton Yakovlev, B. J. Muirhead, Nina Živančević, Gregory Kimbrell, Cameron Lowe, Pat Nolan, Richard Kostelanetz, Daniel f. Bradley, Sheila E. Murphy, Adam Fieled, Bill Wolak, Márton Koppány, M.J. Iuppa, Gregory Stephenson, Elaine Woo, Karl Kempton, J. D. Nelson, Carol Stetser, Neil Leadbeater, Texas Fontanella, Tony Mancus & CL Bledsoe, gobscure, David Lohrey, Douglas Barbour, Keith Higginbotham, Guy R. Beining, Sarah Sarai, hiromi suzuki, Thomas Fink, Maya D. Mason, Carla Bertola, Tom Beckett, Randee Silv & Mumtazz, Mark DuCharme, Michael O’Brien, Elmedin Kadric, Keith Nunes, Bob Heman, John Kalliope, Rebecca Ruth Gould, Charles Borkhuis, Tony Beyer, Kenneth Rexroth, Maralena Howard, Stu Hatton, Michael Brandonisio, Brian Glaser, Penelope Weiss, Stephen Nelson, Tom Daley, Bernie Earley, Anna Cates, Jeff Harrison, John Levy, Vernon Frazer, Miro Sandev, Sabine Miller,  Christopher Barnes, Nick Nelson, Jimmy Rivoltella, Katrinka Moore, Joe Balaz, Marilyn Stablein, Paul Pfleuger, Jr., John Pursch, Joseph Buehler, Colleen Woods, Michael Philip Castro, Michael Prihoda, Henry Crawford, Wes Lee, & Gay Beste Reineck.

I’m very pleased to be in the bunch with one text work and five asemic calligraphy pieces.

“Flip Processor II” is actually a “short story” about two AI robots conducting business transactions in a proprietary language consisting of a limited vocabulary and specific syntax. You can check out this work here.

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